Sweet Sorrow
by The Deadly Syns
Summary: A series of MLP oneshots, mostly humanised, mostly AU, with references to Harry Potter in places.
1. Eurydice Grey - Sweetie Belle

Eurydice Grey was born in 1947 in a small-town orphanage in Arizona. She was a coldly curious child, always perched on the kitchen counter with her blonde hair in pigtails and a book in her lap. The staff were somewhat intimidated by her cool, clear voice and her lack of real emotion. Her face would form the required expression, and her posture would reflect it, and her voice would back them up, but her heart was not in it and her eyes were cold as ice.

Everybody breathed out when she went off to a boarding school in the Appalachian Mountains. She came back that summer paler than ever before, but within seconds it was as if she had never left.

The next summer, she did not return until the last week of August. She had been staying with a friend, she told them, and since the friend had provided her with feminine hygiene products (all the staff had been dreading _those_ birds and bees) nobody complained.

The summer after that, she brought a friend with her. He was thirteen years old, impeccably behaved and so different to Eurydice that it was (or so people said) a miracle that they were friends. He helped out at the orphanage, doing whatever needed doing and endearing himself to the staff with his every move; she wandered around the town in a sort of trance, snapping at anyone who talked to her.

One afternoon, they shocked everyone by going into a tearoom on the high street and proceeding to have a rather violent argument in low whispers. The waitress reported that the argument involved whether to order tea or coffee, and was not resolved until Eurydice's gentleman friend (everyone called him that, except Eurydice herself, who called him Spike) placed his hand on Eurydice's stomach and raised his eyebrows.

Naturally, rumours started flying around. Eurydice and her gentleman friend disappeared suddenly halfway through June and did not return until the last week of August. Eurydice's hair was no longer in pigtails.

Somebody said they had seen a pregnant girl, looking like Eurydice but calling herself Donna Bell, being admitted into a hospital a few miles down the freeway. Somebody else said they had seen Eurydice's gentleman friend leaving the hospital with a baby in his arms. Somebody else said that Donna Bell had given birth to that baby, which she had supposedly named Lily.

All anyone knew about the matter was that Eurydice never told anyone where she had been, and no baby ever materialised. The matter never removed itself from people's minds, though.

Nobody was quite sure how to feel when Eurydice, aged seventeen, packed up and announced she was going to Britain. Nobody tried to stop her. The only person who cared was her gentleman friend, and he was following her.

They were never married.


	2. The Bringer of the Snow - Discord

_This story is "The Tale of the Bringer of the Snow" from "Tales from When the World Was Young", an essential section of Equestrian folklore. This scroll has been translated several times; there is no accounting for any errors which may persist. Please address any inquiries on this matter to the librarian. This scroll is supplied at the discretion of Hogwarts School Library. Please return this scroll to the library within a week of removing it. The late fee for this scroll is a Galleon per day. Please address any further inquiries, complaints, etcetera to the librarian._

Once upon a time there was a world. And on that world there was a land. And in that land there was a valley. And in that valley was a colt.

The colt was a sad colt, although it was always summer in the valley and he never lacked for food. He was lonely, for there were no other foals for him to play with. One day, he decided he would make another foal. From the top of the valley he brought a tall stone, and from the stone he carved an ugly colt that was more bird than pony and more reptile than bird.

Day by day, little by little, the statue came to life. For a time, the colt was very happy. But soon he began to see that the statue was as ugly on the inside as he was on the outside.

"Why?" he asked the statue, one fateful day.

The statue smiled coldly. "You made me this way."

The colt saw that this was so. With a heavy heart, he left the valley. As he left, it began to snow. When the valley was so full of snow that it was impossible to move, the statue followed him.

And the soft snow fell all around, all around, and the soft snow fell, all around, all around.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In those times, a small community of ponies eked out a miserable existence on the slopes of a tall mountain. It was a hard and lonely life.

One day, the statue came upon them.

"Greetings," he said. "I seek shelter."

They gave it to him willingly, shared their food with him and told him fantastical stories of a mare with both wings and a horn. He watched him. He saw they told each other the truth. He saw they were kind to each other. He saw they loved to laugh. He saw they shared their pitiful belongings freely. He saw they were loyal to each other. He saw how much they valued friendship.

In the morning he thanked them and left. At the bottom of the mountain was a place where they mined gems. On that particular day, they had mined a topaz and a rose quartz and a sapphire and an amethyst and a ruby and a tourmaline. The statue snuck into the town hall when all were abed and took the six gems for his own. He worked terrible magic on them in a stronghold so deep beneath the mountain that the earth was hotter than the hottest fire, then took them back to the village on the slopes of the mountain and left them there.

A few weeks later, the village on the top of the mountain was deserted. The bloodied bodies of the ponies, fallen victim to the gems' awful magic, littered the streets. A unicorn mare arrived at the village, saw the six gems lying in the middle of the town square and stopped. She examined them carefully, levitated them into a saddlebag and whistled. A pegasus stallion flew up to her, took the saddlebag and flew off towards a great forest. She bade him farewell, buried the ponies and continued on her way, leaving behind her a ghost village.

And the soft snow fell all around, all around, and the soft snow fell, all around, all around.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A few years later, the statue came to a prosperous city which lay beside a great forest. In that city lived two mares with both wings and horns. The people of that city called them princesses, though they were but commoners. They did not trust the statue. He tried to pretend that he found them fascinating, but they saw through the ruse.

In a deep canyon beside the city they found a tall tree made from crystals. It had five branches. Each branch had only one flower, and those flowers were gems; a topaz, a rose quartz, a sapphire, an amethyst and a ruby. Where the branches met was a sixth gem, an amethyst shaped like a six-pointed star. These gems had magic equal and opposite to the magic of Discord's gems.

The two princesses and a unicorn mare and a pegasus stallion and two earth pony mares harvested the gems and used them against the statue. The statue became stone once again, stone that would never crack so long as the gems remained in the possession of the six who had used them, but the damage was done.

And the soft snow fell, all around, all around, and the soft snow fell, all around, all around.


	3. From Six to Ten - Twilight's Birthdays

Twilight Sparkle's sixth birthday celebration was brought to a halt as the mare galloped through the park, her red-and-yellow mane flying out behind her, books and papers floating around her head in her blue magical aura, so similar to Princess Cadenza's and yet somehow warmer. By the end of that day, the mare was Shining Armour's marefriend.

Twilight Sparkle's seventh birthday celebration was marred only by the bored presence of Sunset Shimmer and Shining Armour's focus on Sunset as opposed to Twilight.

Shining Armour and Sunset Shimmer missed Twilight Sparkle's eighth birthday celebration and returned with jubilant announcements of their engagement.

Shining Armour and Sunset Shimmer spent Twilight Sparkle's ninth birthday celebration working, saving up for their wedding.

On Twilight's tenth birthday, she became Princess Celestia's personal student. Sunset Shimmer ran away the day after; nobody went to Twilight's birthday party. Twilight never saw Sunset again.

She never saw Shining Armour happy again either.


	4. The Changes - Apple Bloom

Apple Bloom learnt young that a good cry and a pout and pleading with her eyes would bring forgiveness and treats. Everyone doted on her (except for Miss Rarity from the village, but she was awful with children and would do anything to stop Apple Bloom crying), and she never wanted for anything.

Except friends. Apple Bloom wanted friends. When she was six, she got friends. She liked Scootaloo more than Sweetie Belle; Sweetie Belle was a bit too calm and safe for Apple Bloom's liking, but Scootaloo liked to jump into things.

For a while, Apple Bloom was very happy. But when she turned thirteen, she discovered that teenagers didn't get away with crying. Apple Bloom was many things, but stupid she was not; when tears didn't work, she threw her pink bow in the bin and wiped the pout off her face and became an angry teenager.

AB was a very angry teenager, desperate to pass on blame. AB believed Scootaloo over everything, even when Sweetie Belle ran away. It was all Sweetie Belle's fault.

But angry teenagers aren't always right.


	5. Expectations - Fluttershy and Zephyr

Hestia and Zephyr Brown had never been the sort of twins who became one entity with two names, joined at the hip and finishing each other's sentences. Hestia was small and red-headed and clever and popular, stumbling through life in a glorious daze of gold stars and best friends; Zephyr was tall and blond and lanky and average, plodding resolutely along and catching Hestia when she fell.

When they went off to boarding school, Hestia and Zephyr grew further apart than ever. Zephyr was reliable, carefully navigating his way into a group of clever but reserved children who took care of each other; Hestia, eager to prove herself popular, fell in with giggling older girls.

Zephyr, when he came home every summer, sat on the grass and read books and did homework under the blazing sun; Hestia spent her summers dancing and drinking with older girls and their brothers and their cousins and their boyfriends.

That was one of the many, many reasons why everyone was surprised when Zephyr bought the motorcycle. The motorcycle was called Breeze, and although it was second-hand it worked. It was mostly used for ferrying Hestia to and from parties.

Everyone was beyond relieved when Hestia turned her back on her old friends and found a steady boyfriend (admittedly, he couldn't help with the drinking problem, but _nobody_ knew how to stop Hestia drinking), and she was so charming that people were almost sad when she and her brother left the country.

Nobody ever bothered to ask why she drank; why would they? After all, when it came down to it, Hestia Brown was just an orphaned girl who nobody had ever really wanted.


	6. Knowlessmare - Rarity

Rarity had never felt free. As a filly, she was stifled by her doting parents; as a young mare, barely twelve, she had been left to take care of a baby she disliked; as an adult, celebrity was as celebrity did.

She was unhappy to realise that to adults she was cold, glassy Rarity with the sneer and sarcastic tone, and to foals she was Miss Rarity who nobody liked. She threw herself into taking care of Sweetie Belle, hoping that at least that way she would have one pony who liked her.

Sweetie Belle was a rather cold filly, despite the name, although she was an extremely good actress. Rarity did not quite approve of the sort of foals she played with, rough-and-tumble little things with mysterious and often-away parents, but she kept her mouth shut.

Rarity was devastated when Sweetie Belle ran away, and even more devastated when it led to a war that shattered her friendships and her world like a dropped mirror.

Nobody ever knew where Rarity had disappeared to.

Aphrodite Evans was one of the stranger products of the London Brights. She did not drink (at least, not where anybody could see her) and she had never once been seen talking to Dash Dawson. In most respects, though, she was just like every other child of the Brights; make-do-and-mending, hanging out the washing at three am, dancing like a dervish to Blue Skies and never, ever seeming to sleep.

She was not greatly missed, because her monosyllabic father and her drunken mother were not popular people – and in the London Brights, people only took care of their own.


	7. Love - A Boy and A Girl

He had been traumatised by the attacks at Hogwarts, and most of all by the tragic death of Myrtle Warren. The girl was sympathetic; although she was homeschooled, she obviously had a tough life. They bonded over pints of beer in a run-down pub, and when he returned to school they corresponded.

With the thought of her spurring him on, he aced all of his examinations. He got a job at Borgin and Burke's, near the rather substandard bookstore where she worked. He got to know her small apartment and its flimsy walls rather well, and her creaky bed soon became as familiar as his own. Her father disliked him, but that was just one of those things.

When she became pregnant, they rushed to marry. It was a cheap wedding, and they could only afford one day's honeymoon, and they could not afford to keep the babies, but it was worth it for her.

He still remembered the day they had first met, and remembered how he had smiled as he took her hand and asked her to dance, and how nobody had minded when they broke the table.

Because Tom Riddle and Apple Jacqueline Smith were in love, and nothing else mattered.


	8. A Million Dreams - Rainbow Dash

They said that Equestria was built on the dreams of millions. Rainbow Dash had enough dreams for millions of ponies. She was going to be a Wonderbolt, she was going to be famous, ponies would say her name with reverence, and a thousand years after she died her name would be scrawled over the history books.

It happened, of course, for the world was written to be so; she became a Wonderbolt, although it was not quite what she had dreamed it to be. Rainbow Dash, ponies whispered, as the country tore itself apart, the mare who had been blind to treason and responded to it by vanishing into thin air.

Rainbow soared to greater heights, better heights, more notorious heights as subversive band Blue Skies, churning out angry toe-tappers that always seemed to come back to the best years of her life and the ponies she had thought were her friends. As Artemis Dawson, on the other hand, she just existed, scraping by.

A million of Rainbow's dreams had come true, but millions more lay in the dust of what had been. And Rainbow was okay with that, because she realised now that the ones which had come true were the only ones that really mattered.


	9. Memories - Twilight Sparkle

In another life, the three of them stand side by side, united as one. Sisters.

In this life, however, they stand side by side, united as one. Friends.

Twilight has to be going mad. It's the only explanation. Her memories are folding over into each other, her childhood blurring into something she doesn't quite remember, sometimes remembering being the lonely filly with no friends, other times remembering being one of three. She thinks she knows that the lonely filly is the real one, because nopony else remembers when she was one of three.

Shining Armour, at least, is in all of her memories; she doesn't think she could stand losing her memories of him in the current climate. Her memories of him are folding into each other too, her half-remembered childhood birthday parties clear as crystal some days but blurred like mist others. She keeps forgetting which one is which, which ones Sunset Shimmer ruined and which ones she simply didn't go to – and worst of all, she keeps forgetting when she truly discovered magic.

Six, she thinks sometimes; ten, others. And she really doesn't know. This isn't getting her any closer to a conclusion, but it's a calming train of thought considering it's her _memories_ at stake. She looks in the mirror; she looks horrible, the princess-general deep in thought, the student buried deep in memories where nopony will ever be able to find her. The problem is, Twilight can't either.

She's running in circles around the same old arguments, never getting anywhere, too scared to seek help. Delusional.

It's all in her head, she tells herself. All in her head. All in her head. She's used to demons that live in her head. It's probably nothing; she really should get more sleep, drink more water, spend less time thinking. She's thinking too hard for it to be imaginary – but it's just her memories. It's all in her head. It's all in her head. It's just her frazzled instincts and her bad memory getting to her. She needs to drink more water, get more sleep, think less. The world is at stake; there's no space to jump at shadows, no time for foolishness. It's a natural process, the fading of memories, and in any case the real enemy is outside her head. It's all in her head. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to be concerned about. She just needs some sleep, and it will all go away.

She ignores the voice in her head which says that just because it's all in her head doesn't mean it's not real, because the voice in her head is also all in her head and is therefore biased. Instincts are overrated anyway.


End file.
